Posts: 2,121 Location: Northern Utah
Tue 29 Mar, 2011 1:09 pm
Kevin,
This counter celtic unity concept started in the 40s or 50s but really took off in the 70s or somewhere around there and there is more info than one could shake a stick at. There are literally scores if not hundreds of books on this topic. This was in response to the pro-celtic union ideals that
BEGIN in the 1820s or there abouts that brought revivals of the language and culture in much of the world, but especially Ireland, later Scotland and Wales.
It is called Pan-Celticism. It is a modern phenomena. There is really no earlier evidence for real Pan-celticism.
Now some sources that demonstrate this-
Pittock, Murray. Celtic Identity and the British Image. Manchester University Press, 1999.
Oxford Companion to Scottish History p. 161 162, edited by Michael Lynch, Oxford University Press.
Making the Caledonian Connection: The Development of Irish and Scottish Studies." by T.M. Devine. Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen. in Radharc: A Journal of Irish Studies Vol 3: 2002.
"Myth and Identity in Early Medieval Scotland" by E.J. Cowan, Scottish Historical Review, xxii (1984).
I think your understanding of the period and its languages in Scotland are somewhat off. In part because common language does not dictate a common culture. It is a means of transportation though culture but is not the limiter of it. We have loads of groups of common linguistic base that form completely different cultures up. Look at the English language or Spanish for example. Spanish culture in Spain is much different than it is in Latin America.
The national organisation for preserving Scottish Gaelic has an excellent time frame based on the most recent work on the topic of Scottish Gaelic.
http://www.savegaelic.org/gaelic/scottish-gaelic-history.php
Here is the key from the site illustrating this-
'The Gaelic language eventually displaced Pictish north of the Forth, and until the late 15th century it was known in Inglis as Scottis. Gaelic began to decline in Scotland by the beginning of the 13th century, and with this went a decline in its status as a national language. By the beginning of the 15th century, the highland-lowland line was beginning to emerge.'
So by the start of the 13th century it begins around the border lands and lowlands. By the late 13th much of the south is not using it as their primary language. During the 14th it even further is decayed and more and more people are just not using it until during the 15th it plummets and begins simply to disappear. Now clearly not the case with reference to the highlands but the lowlands and border county it certainly is the case. I had not said the Highlands discarded Gaelic previously as it is not important to this post as I related earlier. Most of the men involved in the Wars of Independence are lowlanders. They founded the early kingdom and many of them ran the other areas of Scotland as nobles.
So perhaps through his mothers side perhaps that is true that Bruce did but for most of the lowlands this is not supported by any real historic evidence of modern research. I could not say if Wallace did but I doubt it with the area he being in being one of the earlier areas to discard it. Nor have I seen much evidence he is associated with it.
Now I did not mean Robert Bruce did not go to Ireland at all but as I said before he did not go to Ireland to be king. This is the critical issue. He had apparently no intention of doing this.
The reason this is so important.... Pan-Celticism is not medieval. None of the multitudes of articles, books, primary records (I have read all the Scot Parliament Rolls for example), none push this concept. It is something that 19th and 20th century Pan-Celticists want to push for their reasons at the time but it is founded on loose interpretation on the past. So does it exist now. Certainly. Is there real evidence that points to it then in the medieval period, not really.
So now I have provided evidence for the counter point of medieval Pan-Celticism. What real evidence do we have for the cultures being the same? After all my readings on this I see very little to none. I wanted to. I had originally thought of doing my PhD on this topic and my introductory reading made me realize the evidence for it is so little it was not worth the effort.
Now that said in the farther extremes of Scotland I think there is evidence of several continued cultures, both of Celtic and Norse culture. But regardless my point of view is settled on a fairly extensive collection of evidence, not opinion or my own passion on the topic.
So enjoy the reading and see what you think.
RPM